Mod-SPecial Surprise Pixel Dungeon/Tips for End-Game
wiki page is updated with the changes from the developer's latest release "[https://github.com/hmdzl001/SPS-PD/releases/tag/0.9.2part4-A Epic Battle (4): City's Chaos War A" (link to the latest apk).] Weapons for end-game SPS-PD is a mod of Sprouted and among the most famous (or infamous) characteristics of Sprouted Pixel Dungeon is its grindiness. A part of its grindiness is related with the Tier 6 weapons: when the hero reaches the Dolyahaven Mines he/she must farm Norn Stones from Gullins, then create a Tier 6 weapon in the Dolyahaven altar, and then put as many Scrolls of Upgrade on the weapon it is possible (Scrolls of Magical Infusion can't upgrade them), in order to guarantee his/her survival until the end of the Dolyahaven Mines and especially in the end boss fights. To gather the most Scrolls of Upgrade, he/she should have already: grinded Red Wraiths until they dropped a Ring of Wealth / burned bookshelves with the Spectacles until they dropped the Vault Sokoban page for the second Ring of Wealth / upgraded both of them to +14 and grind tomb Wraiths for Scrolls of Upgrade and Magical Infusion / grinded the Book of Heavens depth for an equal number of Phase Pitchers to the Scrolls of Magical Infusion / dropped all the Scrolls of Magical infusion one by one to Phase Pitcher wells of transmutation. After all that he/she will be finally able to invest all the newly acquired Scrolls of Upgrade and those that he/she already had gathered on his/her Tier 6 weapon. This whole procedure is absolutely not needed in SPS-PD (and parts of it are only randomly available, like grinding for Phase Pitchers in the Wisdom Trial depths - formerly Book of Heavens), as there are no enemies in the game with high resistance to lower than Tier 6 weapons, and both final boss stages can be completed with a higly upgraded Tier 5 weapon without a problem. Having a Tier 6 weapon for end-game will just dictate a different, defensive build, with all or almost all of the Scrolls of Upgrade applied the weapon and all the Scrolls of Magical Infusion to the armor. To give a few more details, the first boss battle that needs a highly upgraded weapon is against Shadow Yog, which has almost exactly the same difficulty with the next two final battles, against Mirror Otiluke and Zot. All these three battles are absolutely not manageable with just a +10 weapon. Any Tier 5 weapon when highly upgraded will be just fine in these battles, with the exception of the Runic Blade, which is not bad, but its minimum damage is always 0, even when it gets upgraded above +100, so its damage is very inconsistent. Tier 6 weapons can't get upgraded with Scrolls of Magical Infusion, so the hero who wants to use a Tier 6 weapon but also doesn't want to bother with transmuting Scrolls of Magical Infusion Sprouted-style, will go for a defense-oriented build, with all the Scrolls of Upgrade invested on the weapon, and all the Scrolls of Magical Infusion on the armor. Tier 6 weapons are all fine, just worse in their damage output compared to the Tier 5 weapons, as their damage upgrade scaling is almost half compared to the Tier 5 weapons, they don't deal extra damage against the end-game enemies and also the special abilities of most of them (Flood, Shadow, Shield) aren't related to dealing any damage. The only exception is the Tier 6 Horror Rock Chakram, which when highly upgraded deals mediocre melee damage, like all the other Tier 6 weapons, but its "Rock" special ability deals tremendous damage to all enemies present in the level (not just visible, present), and insta-kills all the minions in the boss levels (Animated Steels in the energy core might need one extra "Rock" hit or two, but only them). The only drawback to its OP ability, is its anti-climactic function: the hero most probably would have had some difficult times in the dungeon earlier, but he/she will just obliterate everything in a few turns in all the final boss depths. All that having been said, there is one exception that a player might want to spend some time accumulating Phase Pitcher seeds, either by buying when he/she finds one or two of them in the Dolya Town shop or by revisiting many times the Wisdom Trial depth, in order to transmute the more Scrolls of Magical Infusion possible, but this has to do with a missile Tier 1 weapon, and not a T6 weapon, the Toy Gun (yes, the T1 Toy Gun), which is sold randomly by Oldnewstwist in Dolya Town, is already reinforced and can only be upgraded with Scrolls of Upgrade. If the player is doing a Huntress run and has chosen the Sniper's subclass, a highly upgraded Toy Gun up to +100 equipped by a Sniper can one-shot Fiends and two-shot Bokoblins in the Shadow Yog boss fight without any damage-enhancing item equipped and it is much better than the Boomerang, as it is quicker and has a better damage upgrade scaling (+1/+3 instead of +1/+2). The player who is doing a Sniper run, but finds boring the procedure of visiting and revisiting the Wisdom Trial or Dolya Town in order to gather as many Phase Pitcher seeds possible, can just simply use the Toy Gun in a defense-oriented build, like a Tier 6 weapon, or highly uprade a reinforced Boomerang Sprouted-style with most of the Scrolls of Upgrade and Magical Infusion (the Boomerang has no problem with any of them). In this case both the Toy Gun and the Boomerang will deal equally good damage, but the Toy Gun with less upgrades and also along with a rather highly upgraded armor, so this build (upgraded with Scrolls of Upgrade Toy Gun + upgraded with Scrolls of Magical Infusion armor) is better than the other one (only highly upgraded Boomerang). Apart from these two missile weapons, the only other non-Tier 5/Tier 6 weapon which is end-game material for a specific subclass is the Spork for the Gladiator, as its very quick attack speed complements very well the Gladiator's Combo buff, but this a well known Gladiator tactic from Sprouted and also this weapon doesn't need specifically Scrolls of Upgrade, so there is no need for further discussion. All the other subclasses will do fine in the end-game by highly upgrading any Tier 5 or Tier 6 weapon they like (or a wand if they are Mages), and possibly also one or two available rings that complement the subclass' special characteristics (the Gladiator a Ring of Accuracy and/or Furor, the Berserker a Ring of Tenacity, the Mage a Ring of Energy and/or Magic etc.). For the players that want to upgrade as much as possible a Tier-6 weapon but don't like repetitiveness: the game provides the hero with approximately 130 to 150 Scrolls of Upgrade and Magical Infusion if he//she has upgraded his/her Lucky Badge to +15 before breaking the game tombstones and if he/she has had some success in the Sokoban puzzles. He/she can also buy some more from the west shop in Dolya Town, which restocks in every visit, and farm them in a limited amount from the tomb in Dolya Town, that spawns in every new visit. Grinding Dew The Dew Drop buff will have a limited duration in regular depths, when the hero had missed some enemies in a hidden room or had just wasted time and so had finished the previous depth under the goal moves. Fortunately, all the challenge depths (Forest, Prison, Caves, City) provide generous amounts of Dew and are repeatable. On the other hand, the Plant ability of the Dew Vial, due to costing 15 dew, is efficient in farming dew only with an upgraded Ring of Haste and at least +3 Shoes of Nature both equipped, or with +10 Greaves of Nature in a 3X3 room, unlike Sprouted, where watering with dew costs only 2 drops. Food Half of the enemies in the Sewers drop regular or mystery meat, various enemies in the subsequent chapters also drop meat (Cave Spinners, Scorpions etc. just like Sprouted) and Dwarf Monks in the Metropolis drop regular rations of food or pasty, with an upgraded Lucky Badge helping the rate of these drops very much. Additionally, the Caves challenge depth is ideal for grinding meat from the piranhas, especially when a Lucky Badge is equipped. Apart from that, the Cooker M.O.S. store sells 4 food items in every hero's visit in Dolya Town in later levels, after the hero has consumed 40 food items, and restocks if any items were bought, after the hero's sleep in the hotel room. In short the food available in late game becomes more than plenty. Gold From early to middle levels, most of the mini-bosses drop from 2,000 to 4,000 gold, and also a good method for gathering quickly gold is visiting again and again the Sokoban 1 level, as it is very easy to complete even without a Wand of Flock, and the hero will be leaving the depth appr. 1,000 to 2,000 gold richer after every visit. Common enemies in all of the first three chapters also drop gold as loot (but in the Metropolis none, and in the Demon Halls only the Thief Imp, which appears rather randomly). The only time that the hero will need a lot of gold is in late game, when he/she will need 35,000 gold to buy all the Trial books from the Imp at their diiscounted prices (Courage Trial 7,500, Power Trial 12,500, Wisdom Trial 15,000 gold). In this case, apart from the apparent solution of grinding the Prison and Caves for gold drops, the hero can just visit all the Sokoban depths, as with a Wand of Flock avaialble Sokoban 2 chests will drop from 12,000 to 14,000 gold, and Sokoban 3 and 4 chests from 6,000 to 8,000 gold, and can also repeat them afterwards, as they will continue to spawn their gold loot (and even more, as gold will substitute the rare scrolls in all of the chests). He/she can also gather appr. 12,000 gold from the City challenge depth, if he/she follows the correct method. If he/she hasn't found a Wand of Flock up to that point, so the Sokoban 2, 3, 4 wil be impossible to get completed and all their gold loot to become available, the Courage Trial book is the cheapest from all three books that the Imps sells, at 7,500 gold, and its tombstones contain mostly gold as loot, so he/she can also start from the Courage Trial and collect appr. 12,000 to 15,000 gold from there. Lastly, after selling all the enchanted upgraded weapons that the Animated Steels drop in the Wisdom Trial and opening all the gold chests that he/she probably find there, approximately 2,000 to 3,000 gold will be also collected, and this being the only Trial depth that respawns its loot, he/she can repeat the procedure as much as it is needed. In end-game selling all the upgraded to +10 or more weapons dropped from the Animated Steels can be a good source for buying extra Scrolls of Upgrade from the Dolya Town shop. Magic Stones''' (formerly Norn stones)'' Their drops from DM-300 and Golems are limited to 6 but are easier to gather in comparison to Sprouted, as they are dropped in the regular dungeon, and not in the Dolyahaven Mines, which are removed from the game in general. They can also be bought in the Dolya Town west shop for 1,875 gold each. The shop doesn't have any limit in spawning them, it just doesn't spawn them in every hero's visit. '''''Phase Pitchers Unlike Sprouted, Phase Pitchers have become a rare drop/loot is SPS-PD, as Wisdom Trial depth (formerly Book of Heavens) remains repeatable is SPS-PD but spawns them rather randomly, even with a +15 Lucky Badge equipped (there can be 5 in one visit, and one or none in the next three visits), and they remain a rare drop from high grass even with +10 Greaves of Nature equipped, so there is almost no way to obtain them through farming/grinding. They can be sold in the norththwest shop in Dolya Town though, but also rather randomly, as there can also be two in one visit and none in the next five visits, so obtaining a lot of them will demand a lot of patience from the player, while he/she will be watching the hero resting until the 500 charges of the Dolya Slate are ready and the hero will be able to visit Dolya Town again or visiting and revisiting the Wisdom Trial in case Phase Pitchers have spawned this time. To compensate a little, Wells of Transmutation spawn much more often in the SPS-PD dungeon, in comparison to Sprouted. All that being said, there is no part of SPS-PD that demands many transmutations of items, for the game to get completed easily. Scrolls in general If the hero wants to upgrade the Unstable Spellbook, he/she will need many scrolls to add XP to the artifact. Gnoll Shamans in prison, caves and metropolis, Broken Robots in caves and metropolis, Sufferers and Succubi in demon halls all drop scrolls, especially when an upgraded Lucky Badge is equipped. Also, like Sprouted, the hero can leave an Old Production (formerly Robot Printer) intact in the DM-300 battle, and after he/she has beaten DM-300, he/she can equip the Lucky Badge and farm scrolls of Recharging from the Broken Robots that will constantly spawn from the Old Production. Scrolls of Upgrade and Magical Infusion Upgrading the Lucky Badge to +15 will help very much with the Wraith drops of these scrolls but will not guarantee them and the Lucky Badge cannot get upgraded above +15 (although this does not happen consistently in every group of 4 wraiths, each group will most often drop from 2 to 3 of these scrolls with a +15 Lucky Badge equipped, and after all the tombstones of each run have been broken with a Lucky Badge +15, there will be approximately a 60% - 40% ratio between Scrolls of Upgrade and Scrolls of Magical Infusion that have been collected). As the Courage Trial depth doesn't respawn its tombstones in each new visit by the hero, currently the only location to farm repeatedly Scrolls of Ugrade and Magical Infusion in SPS-PD is the tombstone that spawns in the southeast of Dolya Town in late levels and reappears in each visit, even when the hero had just destroyed it in the previous visit, nevertheless it is very limited due to 500 turns that need to pass for the Dolya Slate to allow a new visit (food becomes plenty in late levels, so the player can watch the hero rest/eat when starving - charge the Dolya Slate to 500 - visit Dolya Town - leave Dolya Town - repeat, but this will demand a lot of patience). The hero can also buy these scrolls from the west shop in Dolya Town, which restocks in each visit or after a sleep in the hotel room, and it almost always spawns a few in every hero's visit, but it sells them for 2,500 gold each, so to buy many of them, a lot of farming for gold will be needed first, apart from patience in waiting the Dolya Slate to charge up for revisiting Dolya Town. Trainer Rain in Dolya Town also sells randomly these scrolls. Seeds and Vegetables Vegetables are useful in many good cooking recipes, and seeds are needed for potions, so a hero might need to farm them. Vegetables: ''The only monsters that drop vegetables are the prison Crazy Thief (rarely, even with an upgraded Lucky Badge equipped), the Crazy Bandit (always, but spawns rarely), but both appear rather randomly. Practically, only piranhas in the Caves challenge depth can be farmed for vegetables, but with limited results even with an upgraded Lucky Badge equipped (more vegetables drop the more piranhas get killed, but none from the start - they start dropping appr. after the 60th piranha gets killed and still rather randomly, no matter how many piranhas are killed). Vegetables is also an infrequent drop from high grass, which becomes common with upgraded Sandals of Nature equipped, and are also sold randomly in the northwest Dolya Town shop. ''Seeds & Nuts: T''he only monsters that drop seeds and nuts, but do it often, are the Dust Element in the Sewers and the Demon Flower in the demon halls, but both spawn rather randomly. Seeds are also sold randomly in the northwest Dolya Town shop. Like in Sprouted the basic way to farm seeds is by trampling high grass, which can be tedious, unless upgraded Sandals of Nature are equipped. Also the Plant ability of the Dew Vial, due to costing 15 dew, is efficient in farming only with an upgraded Ring of Haste and at least +3 Shoes of Nature both equipped or with +10 Greaves of Nature in a 3X3 room. Dolya Town has also an area with high grass in its southeast corner, which regrows slowly during the hero's visit, and is fully regrown in the next visit. Also, scrolls of Regrowth are not unique items anymore, but rare, and are sometimes sold by Coconut in Dolya Town, so they can be repeatedly used to fill a big depth with high grass (with the Vault depth having been removed, the Dolya Town is the best candidate as it is one of the biggest game depths with many plantable tiles and with no aggressive enemies on dry land tiles at all). 'Loot in general''' Item generation has been heavily nerfed in the Wisdom Trial (formerly Book of the Heavens) and there is also no way to fall in the Thief King's basement anymore, so the hero will have to be content with what he he/she had managed to find in the regular dungeon. Nevertheless in those regular depths an upgraded Lucky Badge has a very positive effect in item generation in general and the spawning of Scroll of Magical Infusion and Potions of Might in particular, so the hero should save money for buying the Sweet Home Dolya Slate page as soon as possible, and to acquire the Lucky Badge as a consequence. Category:SPecial Surprise Pixel Dungeon